2026; video installation, 45 minutes; 4K projection, sound, fabric, metal poles, metal wires, carpet, seating, 12x8x3.4m
Commissioned by the Diriyah Biennale Foundation for the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026.

"Hold" is a video installation project that reads the world through the act of grasping. The word “grasp” carries two intertwined meanings: to reach for and seize with hands and fingers, or to get hold of something mentally, to comprehend and to understand.

The video explores the entanglements between the design of handles, design of words, extended bodies, out-of-body experiences, and other neuro-cultural conundrums, mixing analytical philosophy, scientific writing, literature, and whimsical reflections.

A seemingly simple, three-tiered sentence quietly assembles a fully-formed individual: “The hand is mine, and I’m reaching for the apple on the table, because I am hungry.” It creates a strong sense of ‘mine-ness,’ where limbs are felt as extensions of the self, driven by intention and anchored in reason. The individual claims their body, acts upon the world, and moves with purpose.

A name is not simply an abstract sign pointing to a real thing in the real world. The thing in the world exists in conjunction with its name; it becomes accessible and graspable with its name. Wittgenstein likens words to tools and handles: our interaction with language resembles the way a train operator handles all the knobs, levers, and cranks of the locomotive. The grasp of language runs both ways. When one has a strong grasp of language, language, too, has a strong grasp on one.

So when a name is gone, so does its recall, so does the thing itself. Agency wears thin, the world grows unintelligible. Grasp is loosened in all directions.

The 45-minute video combines recorded and found footage with a voice-over by the artist, and exists in both a single-channel and an installation format. The video installation takes the form of a three-channel projection onto a tent-like structure.

Contact mertufan@gmail.com for full video preview access.

Script
Concept and script: Merve Ertufan
Script editor: Mochu

Installation production
3d Model: Miled Rizk
Production manager and sculpture fabricator: Kıymet Daştan
Tent manufacturer: Dinçer Branda
Metal fabricator: Hakan Bal, Özdemir İş Demir Dekorasyon

Audiovisual production
Cinematography: Juliette Valentin
Voice over: Merve Ertufan
Hand models: Alla Semenovskaya, Deniz Inal, Chu
Video production studio: BBK Medienwerkstatt
Sound recording studio: Jean Szymczak, Studio P4
Equipment rental: See you RENT

Post-production
Video editor for multi-channel: Merve Ertufan
Video editor for single-channel: Priyanka Chhabra
VFX and motion graphics: Anmol Jaswal, Merve Ertufan
Assistant: Begüm Yıldırım
3d models: BlenderKit, MeshyAI
Sound design: Suvani Suri & Abhishek Mathur
Sound mastering: Anindo Bose
Translation embedding to Arabic: Mohammed Berro

Additional audiovisual sources
Meme: Best illustration of Baudrillard’s theory, by r/PhilosophyMemes
Stock footage: pixabay.com
Naming test: Boston Naming Test; Kaplan, Goodglass, and Weintraub, 2001
Duck-rabbit illustration: Joseph Jastrow (1892)
AI video models used: MiniMax Hailuo 02, Veo2, Kling 2.1, Sora 2
Cueva de las Manos: Wikimedia
Dr. Strangelove: video excerpts sourced from “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964), directed by Stanley Kubrick
Macaque monkeys: video excerpts from Atsushi Iriki seminar titled “The Brain in the Ecosystem: Cognition, Culture, and the Environment” at ICPS 2019
Bird footage: “Bird making Samsung notification sounds” from Pascal Parraguez Youtube channel; excerpts from “Amazing! Bird Sounds From The Lyre Bird” by BBC Wildlife; “Shoebill stork clattering sounds like machine guun~!! (Japan Matsue Vogel Park)” from Happy O Funny Youtube channel
Brain drawings: “Atlas and Text-book of Human Anatomy Volume III Vascular System, Lymphatic system, Nervous system and Sense Organs”, Johannes Sobotta and Matty Spinder, UMC Utrecht
Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan: images from Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., video excerpts sourced from “The Miracle Worker” (1962), directed by Arthur Penn
Vowel Space 1: images from video titled “The Vowel Space” by Dr. Geoff Lindsey, published on youtube, 2023

MRI video: “Vocal Tract MRI Shows The Complexity of Speech” by Charlie Wiltshire, published on youtube, 2021
Images from space: from expedition 73 realized by Johnson Space Center 2025, images taken from NASA’s website
Cuneiform and bulla meteors: 3d models made from images taken from Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative
Wittgenstein house images: downloaded from Wikimedia, photographs by Mark Harding, Maxronnersjo, Clemens Mosch, and Walter Anton
Metal casting videos: Selected excerpts from the Metal_LY YouTube channel
Rubber hand experiment: video excerpts sourced from Quarks TV-series, images from eLife - Francesca Gabarini
Vowel space 2: Praat APP, by Paul Boersma & David Weenink 1992–2025
Dictionaries: “I know I don’t know”, 2015, artwork by Merve Ertufan
Home movies: from artist’s family archive
Low-poly brain: 3d model “Brain Low Poly” by omg3d

Thanks to Abdullah Aydın, Sabih Ahmed, Savaş Ertufan, Talip Kaya, KBS factory, John Robinson, Selva, Kristina Shalygina, D.J. Simpson, Simon Streather, Cafer Taşkıran, Ceren Taşkent, Julia Tieke, Sevil Tunaboylu, Dilek Winchester, Lantian Xie, Sammy Zarka.